Residents frustrated by 9/11 memorial roadblocks in West Bridgewater

After a multi-year campaign to secure a suitable memorial to house the steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center, local advocates are again facing setbacks.

Shannon Gallagher The Enterprise SGallagher_ENT

WEST BRIDGEWATER – Bill Kovatis would like nothing more than to see a proper 9/11 memorial completed in town during his lifetime. But after more than two years of push-back from local officials, he’s beginning to doubt he’ll see it happen.

“This is two years we’ve been trying to do this,” Kovatis said. “I’m 74 years old, and I’d like to see this done before I’m gone here. It’s been frustrating. It’s been going on and on and on.”

After a multi-year campaign to secure a suitable memorial to house the steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Kovatis and other local advocates are again facing setbacks.

Kovatis, a West Bridgewater native, has for years coordinated the 9/11 memorial ceremony outside the police and fire station and is a key member on the coalition of police and firefighters that’s been pushing for a more complete memorial.

The current memorial – two black pegs holding the steel beam, alongside an engraved granite stone – was funded entirely with donations from the West Bridgewater Police and Fire Associations and other local businesses.

The town has not contributed any money to the 9/11 memorial project to date.

But, after two years working with the Community Preservation Committee to secure $60,000 for the project, the coalition has run into only repeated setbacks.

At its Monday, June 26 meeting, the local Historical Commission refused to revisit their last-minute decision not to designate the 9/11 memorial as a historic artifact to the town of West Bridgewater.

The decision was made on principal alone, based on the Historic Committee’s somewhat subjective interpretation of what may be considered “historic” to West Bridgewater.

“We were all impacted by [9/11],” Historic Commission Chairman Jim Benson said directly after the meeting, explaining the board’s criteria. “If John Smith from Forest Street in West Bridgewater had been killed then it’s a no-brainer, it’s an automatic yes that it’s historic to the town of West Bridgewater.”

However, when reminded of the several West Bridgewater firefighters who traveled to New York City after the World Trade Center’s collapse and directly aided in the rescue efforts, the board’s opinion remained unchanged.

According to residents present at the Historic Commission’s meeting on Monday, the commission made it clear from the start that they did not intend to consider new arguments.

“They didn’t even give us a chance to start before they were telling us they weren’t changing their vote,” Kovatis said.

Selectman Eldon Moreira said he disagreed with the board’s decision.

“That's wrong,” Moreira said. “That’s a national memorial and I don’t know what the big problem is and why they’re doing this.”

Had the vote passed, the Community Preservation Committee would have been able to petition the town for approval to allot $60,000 from Community Preservation funding to the project at the next town meeting.

Instead, they’re taking the proposal back to the drawing board.

“We are doing some research on which direction to go next,” Deputy Fire Chief Kenney May said in an email. “We will not give up!”

Now, the Community Preservation Committee is looking into designating the square of land that houses the memorial as open green space, making it eligible for CPA Open Space Funding, rather than CPA Historic Preservation funding.

While the CPC had planned ahead to ensure they could fund the project as a historical artifact, it remains unclear whether there are sufficient Open Space funds to cover the project.

“What I need to do now is make sure we have enough money going forward to use funds from the Open Space Fund,” CPC Chairwoman Cheryl Cambria said.

The Committee is hopeful they can sort out a solution and put together a project proposal soon enough to hold a special town meeting in order bring the project to a town vote.

For many police and firefighters, they consider the events of 9/11 very personal and many said they are baffled by the Historic Commission’s decision that 9/11 is not historic to the town.

“Three hundred and forty-three of my brothers and sisters died along with 42 police officers that day,” May said.” That’s our family, so you can’t tell me there’s no significance to West Bridgewater.”

“One way or another,” Kovatis said, “We’re going to get it done. If I ever hit the lottery, you know what I’d do? I’d finish the project.”